LOVE COMES SLOW AND IT GOES SO FAST
One moment she was Roni, a feisty bar owner from Hyperion Heights, Seattle fighting for the rights of the people in her neighbourhood and the next… This wasn't her life at all, she was Regina Mills, former Evil Queen, and Mayor of Storybrooke. Two very different lives merging inside her head, what was real and what was not blurred and changed as things became clearer.
She had a son, a son who was now grown up and had been drinking in her bar, oh she'd be having words with him later. After she'd hugged him tightly and refused to let him out of her sight again. She also had a granddaughter, Lucy. Beautiful little Lucy was her granddaughter, her heart soared with love and just feeling. She had so many questions but right then she just wanted to be able to talk to her son, sit down with him and catch-up, she'd missed so much.
It was much later when she got the chance to do just that. Not till after Lucy was in bed, the child had been filled with excitement about everything, she reminded her so much of Henry at that age. The curse was broken, Henry had believed and kissed his daughter much the same as Emma had kissed Henry all those years ago.
Regina wasn't sure where she stood with her grown-up son, she'd hugged him tight and knew he was her same little prince just now a man and not so little but it wasn't easy. He too was a little awkward, it had been easier when others had been buzzing around them too, she'd learnt things about him in the time that she was Roni that she might not have learnt had he known that he was talking to his mother.
She asked him what he'd gotten up to in the time he'd been gone, back when she was still in Storybrooke and he had been away, discovering himself. They'd met up briefly before this curse had hit but there'd been little time for conversation on such matters as they'd been dragged into a new story of impending doom.
He laughed, "I saw so much mom, learnt so much. I travelled to realms with different versions of the same stories, I found realms where even our story was told differently. A realm where your curse was never cast and another where you and ma fell in love and were each other's happy endings."
At this she shuffled uncomfortably because she had fallen in love with his other mother, it just hadn't worked out that way. Still, she smiled and drunk in the stories of his adventures. They were up for hours, despite how exhausting their day had been but her son had had what seemed a life time away from her and she wanted to hear everything.
He told her of how he met Cinderella, growing sheepish as he admitted how his motorcycle had crashed with her carriage, she'd given him a disapproving look but it was more teasing than anything. They'd had their own love story and then finally their daughter, her granddaughter. Oh, how she wished she could have been there from the moment the girl had been born so she could spoil her and shower her with affection, she had a lot of lost time to make up for.
He expressed his doubts to her, "I don't know if things are too different now."
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"Between me and Cinders," he shrugged, looking down at his feet, his face filling with such self-doubt she'd not seen in him as a boy. "Maybe too much time has passed and things are too different now after this curse."
"No." it came out too harshly and he looked up shocked. Her voice softened but shook with emotion, "what I mean is, you love her and I've seen that she loves you too. Don't make my mistakes, go after the person you love and just try, please Henry, just try."
"Mom?" He questioned, confused by this outburst and she supposed she could tell him the truth since it seemed that their first story was now so far in the past.
"Henry," her voice broke, "my mistake was not going after someone I loved," she faltered and her voice cracked but she pushed on all the same, "because I doubted myself and it was one of the biggest mistakes of my life."
"Who?" her boy looked at her with such love and concern, it helped to fill her heart with everything that had been missed as Roni.
"Your other mother," she took a deep breath. "Emma," just saying her name still hurt so deeply.
"Oh mom, I had thought that maybe you both felt that way about each other… but then I thought I was just a kid getting my hopes up and wanting my parents to be together."
She smiled a teary smile, she didn't really know how Emma had felt about her, there'd been moments where she was sure her feelings were returned but then Hook would come along and she could see that Emma loved him and not her. "Just promise me, Henry, if you love her, then go and make sure she knows it because you will one day regret not saying anything."
He nodded firmly, it seemed that she'd set his mind and sharing with him what she'd kept buried for so long was worth it if he learnt from her mistakes. Not too long after that, they went to bed.
There was still much to talk about but their conversation was becoming much too broken by yawns and drooping eye lids to continue. She hugged her son goodnight, holding him slightly longer than necessary before letting him go then she looked in on Lucy. She stood in the doorway of the room the girl was sleeping in and watched her chest rise and fall as she slept, it reminded her of all the times she'd done the same for Henry.
That night going to sleep the world felt like a lighter place for Regina Mills, there were still battles to be had and there would certainly be a lot of issues that needed facing now that there were fairy tale characters scattered over Seattle but a weight had been lifted. She had her son and granddaughter but also the knowledge that somewhere out there was a Regina Mills and Emma Swan who were happy together and in love. That knowledge meant more to her than she could even express, she felt that she could move on with her life and only look forward. She wished it was her being loved by Emma Swan but it was something anyway. Maybe one day she'd have her own love story that was worthy of a storybook but for now, she was ok being where she was.